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That elusive chuff-chuff sound

Nothing you don't all know, I'm sure, but whilst messing around with my old Bing vertical today, I discovered how to get that wonderful steam chuff sound by putting the engine under load so that it is working very slowly.

Seems to work with most of my engines, but I haven't tried any reciprocating engines yet.

Remember, the slow speed must be due to the load and not the steam regulator. In other words, keep the regulator fully opened and slow her right down by steadily increasing the load.

Great Chuffing sound, has to be slowed down with q\a load so there is a full supply of steam to make the sound,

BTW Your SE3A is a SE2A

calypso

Thanks John. I can never remember.

johnreid

No biggie, real nice collection. That is one beautiful engine by the way,

robertosala

Beautiful engine. There is something magical in that engine.
Nothing else can beat the sound of steam under load.

newsteamer123

great vid! thanx! sounds amzing you think it would work with a wilesco??

robertosala

It will work with all steam engines when under load.
Usually a heavy load will be an AC or a DC generator.
Generators usually impose a heavy load on steam engines.
If you add equipment to be powered up by the generator the load becomes heavier to the steam engine. A load for the generator could be a small flashlight bulb.

This sound is music to my ears!

rangerssteamtoys

Great chuffing sound.

Any Jensen with a stephensons link can be adjusted so the engine make a nice chuffing sounds without a load. Its a nice effect.

robertosala

Aha! let's see..... Rangersteamboy.
You've got my full attention....
How is that about the Jensen with a stephensons link can be adjusted so the engine make a nice chuffing sounds without a load?
you mean by moving a little the stephensons almost like neutral?

Kindly explain.

rangerssteamtoys

robertosala wrote:

Aha! let's see..... Rangersteamboy.
You've got my full attention....
How is that about the Jensen with a stephensons link can be adjusted so the engine make a nice chuffing sounds without a load?
you mean by moving a little the stephensons almost like neutral?

Kindly explain.

Gladly

You can either move the stephensons link into a neutral position where the engine hardly runs on full throttle. That gets annoying holding the lever. So what I usually do is I adjust the eccentrics on the main shaft, where it runs great with high rpm in one direction, but barely runs in the other direction. It makes a great chuffing sound, the engine looks like it has a load on it, but there is no load.

robertosala

Great! I'll try this today!
Nice tip.
Today is a rainy afternoon here in San Salvador.
Gray sky and rainshowers with electric activity.
Good for steaming and to turn on a huge Tesla coil and create a monster.

Gracias.

Bugsy

robertosala wrote:

Great! I'll try this today!
Nice tip.
Today is a rainy afternoon here in San Salvador.
Gray sky and rainshowers with electric activity.
Good for steaming and to turn on a huge Tesla coil and create a monster.

Gracias.

I would like to see a video of that!
Gracias to you too, Robertosala!!

Atticman

Great fun John, they look so sedate these old german ones dont they

Keith S

rangerssteamtoys wrote:

robertosala wrote:

Aha! let's see..... Rangersteamboy.
You've got my full attention....
How is that about the Jensen with a stephensons link can be adjusted so the engine make a nice chuffing sounds without a load?
you mean by moving a little the stephensons almost like neutral?

Kindly explain.

Gladly

You can either move the stephensons link into a neutral position where the engine hardly runs on full throttle. That gets annoying holding the lever. So what I usually do is I adjust the eccentrics on the main shaft, where it runs great with high rpm in one direction, but barely runs in the other direction. It makes a great chuffing sound, the engine looks like it has a load on it, but there is no load.

And that is exactly what full size mobile steam engines (like locomotives) do once up to speed, to save steam and make the most of the potential energy of a relatively small shot of steam due to expansion. Increasing the cut-off gives a locomotive a distinctive "barking" exhaust sound.

Dampfmaschine

Keith S wrote:

rangerssteamtoys wrote:

robertosala wrote:

Aha! let's see..... Rangersteamboy.
You've got my full attention....
How is that about the Jensen with a stephensons link can be adjusted so the engine make a nice chuffing sounds without a load?
you mean by moving a little the stephensons almost like neutral?

Kindly explain.

Gladly

You can either move the stephensons link into a neutral position where the engine hardly runs on full throttle. That gets annoying holding the lever. So what I usually do is I adjust the eccentrics on the main shaft, where it runs great with high rpm in one direction, but barely runs in the other direction. It makes a great chuffing sound, the engine looks like it has a load on it, but there is no load.

And that is exactly what full size mobile steam engines (like locomotives) do once up to speed, to save steam and make the most of the potential energy of a relatively small shot of steam due to expansion. Increasing the cut-off gives a locomotive a distinctive "barking" exhaust sound.

It was reffered to as "notching up" the cut off by UK steam loco drivers.